Page 29 of Her Duke Next Door
She didn’t answer.
“My mother shooed the cooks out of the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and, together, we baked an apple pie for dinner’s dessert. Her grandmother had been a cook for a Countess and taught my mother many things before she had inherited a title from a family member passing. Then, with a better status, my mother’s mother married a Duke. My mother’s side of the family was originally of lower status but my father’s side carried the rank. My father never did quite stop complaining but he did enjoy the apple pies.”
He knocked on the door again. “Would you like to come out and bake with me, Katie? We can have our own tradition.”
There was a noise from the other side, and soon, it opened. Dominique scrambled up to find his daughter looking at him with a sullen face. His heart notched into worry; he had not seen her look so dismal since her mother had been buried.
“Katie? Whatever is the matter?” he asked.
She left the door open and stalked back to her bed, falling onto it. He peered down at her, hovering.
“I am depressed, Papa,” she sighed, her voice taking on a dramatically woeful tone. “My best friend has left. I miss her.”
“I miss her too,” he sighed.
Katie blinked up at him. “Who? Eloise?”
He stopped short, blinking back at his daughter. “… Yes?”
She squinted at him. “Papa, you are strange.”
He did not fully know how to comfort her best. He guessed that offering her a new pony would not suffice to replace a best friend who could talk to her.
“I do notwantto lose Eloise,” Katie mumbled. “I miss her, Papa.” She sighed, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead in a display of woefulness. “If only I could see her again.”
Her eyes grew wide and she sat up suddenly. The side of her blonde hair was mussed as if she had lain down for a long time. “Papa, youmusttake me to London to visit her! I have never been to London and I must see my friend or I might wither away and die!”
“Now, Katie?—”
“I must see her!” Katie whined. “Please, Papa.Pleasetake me to London! It is the only way I shall no longer feel depressed!”
She was interrupted by the housekeeper knocking with a tray of tea. She smiled, having heard Katie’s pleas, and set the tray down. “I hear they have some marvelous tea shops in London, Your Grace. And Katie has not eaten in a couple of days.”
“The tea will be all, Geraldine, thank you,” Dominique said sharply. After she once again bowed out of the door, Dominique turned to his daughter. “Katie, I cannot take you to London.”
“Why not?” she snapped. “We could stay at Eloise’s house and live together like proper sisters do!”
“Propersisters?” He frowned. “Where on Earth do you get that impression that you shall be sisters?”
“Because I am sure that her mama will fall in love with you and you shall live happily ever after. Eloise has no papa, I have no mama. It makes sense!”
“Ah, Katie,” he said, sitting down next to her. “Not every mama alone and every papa alone will marry. It is a lovely thought but it is not the way with Lady Yore and I.”
“But I really want Eloise to be my sister,” Katie pouted. “And now her mama is maarying that awful man instead of you.”
He thought of Mary, and how she had felt beneath his lips, how her desire had escaped her in small gasps of pleasure.
“How do you know about that?”
“Eloise told me! She said she shall never speak to her mama again.”
“I am sure she did not mean that.”
“I hope she does! And Lady Yore was nice to me but now I do not think she is. Otherwise, she would not have taken Eloise away!”
“Katie, do not speak of Lady Yore like that,” Dominique scolded. “She has been kind to you. And you have other friends whom you can spend time with instead. I am sorry, dear, but I cannot take you to London.”
“All you do is sayno,” Katie pouted. “I wanted a mama and you said no to that as well. Well, all my other friends have mamas! I must watch them every time I visit them. Their mamas love them! It is your fault I do not have one to love me as well. I am alone. I have no best friend and no mama and it isyourfault.”
